India’s Meri Panchayat App Awarded on Global Stage, Minister Lalan Singh Bats for Digital Democracy in Villages

In what is being seen as a recognition of India’s grassroots digital governance model, the “Meri Panchayat” mobile application recently bagged the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Champion Award 2025 in Geneva under the category of Cultural and Linguistic Diversity and Local Content. 

Developed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj in collaboration with NIC under the Ministry of Electronics and IT, the app empowers citizens across 2.65 lakh Gram Panchayats with real-time access to local budgets, elected representatives, public infrastructure details, and decision-making processes. 

Image Source: Ministry concerned

With multilingual support in over 12 Indian languages, geo-tagged transparency tools, project-tracking dashboards, and participatory feedback systems, the app is redefining digital democracy at the last mile--where governance meets the grassroots.

The recognition comes at a time when India’s digital architecture is emerging as a global model for scale, inclusiveness, and innovation. 

Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Lalan Singh, who formally received the award in New Delhi, underlined that platforms like Meri Panchayat are digital bridges connecting citizens with accountability and voice. 

His ministry’s focus on strengthening rural participation through tech-led tools shows a broader national push where India’s digital economy already contributes over ₹31 lakh crore to GDP, hosts 55% of the world’s Global Capability Centres, and sees over 49% of global real-time payments via UPI. 

From BharatNet’s reach across 2.14 lakh GPs to BHASHINI’s multilingual AI interface and the UMANG platform’s 7+ crore users, India’s digital backbone is enabling inclusive development -- making governance smarter, faster, and closer to the people it serves.